Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-11-25

The Mountnineer, His Home, Habits, and
Life.

]
Life.
DECATUR, Ala, Nov. 80.
TO the T. litor of the Free Press;
There is something most interesting to
the lover of nature and humanity in by
way peoples and places. The people who
have not had their angles rubbed off by
contact with the world and polished with
uniform brightness by society friction
until they resemble machine made pins in
in paper, are as worthy of study and are
infinitely more amusing than the typical
society pattern whom we all try more or
less to copy.
What is true of humanity is also true in
nature. The Rhine and Niagara and the
Yosemite are well enough in their way, but
now and then one wishes to seek a retired
nook where nature has laid aside her the
atrcals. 1t is relief to sit by natures
kitchen fire now and then and see her in
her domestic moods
The by-way papers will deal with the
out of the way and the common place
peoples and things that have met in my
rambles.
| If these studies have any particular
aim in view, anything to teach or advo-
cate, the writer don't know what it
is and if anything wonderful gets into
these papers it will he purely accidental.
| Having laid aside all trammels that arise
| from having an object in view, and feeling
under no obligations to tell anything mar
vellous or thrilling, having, figuratlvely
speaking, put on a blouse and Il straw hat,
we can ramble first into the mountains
1t Is question whether Vermonter
could find any mountains in Alabama.
He would hardly feel justified in apply
| ing the term mountains" to these hills
and elevated plateaus that pass by this
name here. Indeed one feels at first, like
saying of these 50 called mountains as
the disguised Green mountain boy said
on first seeing Bunker Hill "Call that ere
"A hill Why, by gosh we'd not call
that much more than hole in the ground
mp III my State" And indeed the noun
taius in Alabama are not higher than
Vermont hills, the highest having barely
more than 1900 to 1900 feet elevation. They
differ from Vermont mountains in this
respect that their tops are more or less level
and quite fertile. The Vermont hill farmer
has his home and his fertile land in the
valley and pastures his sheep and cows on
the hills Here the mouhtaineer lives on
the top of his mountains, his fertile land
is the top of these pateaus, as well as the
valleys. The whole region in fact is ee-
waited and hence the inhabitants are by
themselves in more or less isolated com
munities. 1t seems little singular at first
after toiling up steep rocky mountain or
hillside for distance to come upon a long
stretch of more or less level country in
stead of rounded summit. And it seems
still more strange to find scattered commit
mites living here by themselves, to find the
land fertile and covered where not clear
ed, with a heavy growth of great oak and
chestnut trees" This is the "sand-mouu-
tain REGION" so called, because the upper
geologic formation is a grey sandstone
found through these regions. Roads are
bad and travel is mostly on horseback or
in OK wagons. Newspapers are unknown
and schools equally SO.
The formation of the country then, as
much as anything else, keeps these Sand
mountainers, as they are called, isolated.
This isolation develops and intensifies their
characteristics and peculiarities. 1t is
among such people as these that Miss
Murfree George E2bert Craddock) found
the material for her popular romances.
To be sure the scenes of her stories are
laid little further east, in eastern Ten
nessee, but much the same formation OF
country prevails here as there, and the
people are very similar. Miss Craddock 5
novels are admirable in their way and
give quite true picture of these noun
tain people, except that the sentiment, or
sentimentalism .ather, may be over
drawn.
1t is in these elevated and isolated re
gions too that the "moonshiner" is raised
He indeed is indigenous to these regions
His father was in the business before him
and his son will inherit the same taste for
this dangerous Illicit distlllng. The
United States with all its authority and
power Will never be able to root him out
any more than 1t can eXterminate the
mountain laurel. The steam engine and
the school master may do it in future
years. How distorted the views one gets
of people seen only through the eyes OF
an enemy. We have been accustomed to
think OF the moonsEiner AS wild, half
savage, laWbreaker, who sets all laws
human and divine, AT defiance. Yet moth
ing could be much farther from the truth
The moonshiner is as often as not a relip
ious man and observes such laws as are
recognized i'll the mountains. His fight
Is against the "reYrnutcrS," rs he calls
the revenue officers, and he is hardly con
sclous that they are representatives of the
government. H sees that they come tC
destroy his little still aud to lodge him il
prison, and with something Of the same
spirit that fired the breasts Of the "em-
battled farmers OF Lexington long ago in
their resistance to their government the
moonshlner hlm~eiIWith his long rifle
and laws in ambush Tor the invading reVe
nue. officers OF the United States govern
, ment. 1t must be said OF these long rine.
that they are accustomed To hit the Object
aimed at. And hence the revenue Officer
finds his position here an exceedingly dan
gerous one. We shall run into some OF
these moonshiners in our ramble, but only
in their homes and in their peaceful at
tltudes. No thrilling adventures in raid
Ing mountain stills have personally fallel
! | In he ANI.lInr Inlnnl 4 q.